A stone’s throw from the Greek Parliament, in front of the austere Ministry of Finance, Giorgia Oikonomopoulou has abandoned her hair and her red gloves, which have become the symbol of her fierce struggle to find her job. In 2013, the housekeeper learns from the television news that she is “lay-off”like 595 other colleagues hired at the Ministry of the Economy, in tax and customs offices throughout the country.
The conservative government of Antonis Samaras explains, at the time, to meet a requirement of the country’s donors (European Union, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund). According to the second aid plan for Greece of 237 billion euros, signed on February 21, 2012 between Athens and its creditors (removal of 107 billion euros of public debt held by private creditors and 130 billion euros in loans), 15,000 civil servant posts must be eliminated.
“They attacked the weakest first, us, the poorly literate women. They must have thought we weren’t going to protest.” recalls the fifties, still moved. After September 2013, the approximately 500 employees receive 75% of their salary. “At that time I was only earning 300 euros and I was trying to save on everything: on food, electricity, heating…”whispers Giorgia.
However, she does not give up. Day after day, with her colleagues, she demonstrates, sticks up posters, talks with passers-by, gives interviews to the international media. She even receives a letter from the English director Ken Loach, touched by their story. With the election of Alexis Tsipras, leader of the radical left (Syriza), in January 2015, all the cleaning ladies were rehired. “He kept this promise, he had supported us during all these years of mobilization. For us, the women who were between 40 and 50 years old, it was a relief, because it was impossible to be rehired! », Giorgia notes.
“Country for tourists”
At 55 today, she has evolved into a post of secretary at the Ministry of Finance and receives 960 euros monthly net. She also resumed studies in administrative law at university. “My personal situation has improved, but taxes have increased at the same time, real estate and energy prices are exploding… I don’t think the Greeks feel like they are out of the crisis economic. Especially since barely out of the tunnel, we were hit by the pandemic” of Covid-19, she notes.
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